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Link to download SCF minutes Hello, Thanks again to those of you who provided feedback to me ahead of the latest meeting of the Student Consultative Forum, on 14 May, which I attended on behalf of FASS. I received a variety of comments from a total of 7 companies and raised all of your points. Please find attached draft minutes from the meeting. These will also be available on the FASS website (www.fass-online.org) soon. If you did submit a comment, or are just interested in what we discussed, please read my report below for some particular points that are in response to your comments and questions. Exam timetables - CTs: The majority of feedback about the proposal to switch the CTs to the afternoon was against this idea, preferring the status quo. This was only ever a suggestion, and it was agreed not to take it forward.
- CA1: I raised the possibility of moving CA1 Paper 2 to a morning slot, so that the two papers would be on consecutive mornings. This suggestion will be “considered” when future exam timetables are being drawn up.
- CA3 exam: The Registrar noted concerns about the change in date for this exam after the provisional timetable had been published. This was said to necessary because of the high volume of applicants for what was the final sitting of the CA3 exam. The Registrar said that late timetable changes are avoided if at all possible and encouraged students to check the Profession’s website for timetable updates in case there are changes. They agreed to better communicate any such changes in future.
Exam centres - Edinburgh centre: The intention is to continue using the Edinburgh Business School at Heriot-Watt University because of the good feedback on it.
- Glasgow centre: Comments about the heat in the room during the afternoon exams will be examined.
New requirements for CA2 and CA3 · - The most controversial item on the agenda. I had received universally negative feedback on these new mandatory requirements – as had the other Student Reps. ·
- This was a frustrating discussion: Despite being aware of all the feedback that had been received on this issue, the SCF was informed that the Profession’s Education Committee (which makes these decisions) had met the previous week and reaffirmed its position: This was now a “hard and fast” rule which would be “strictly adhered to”. ·
- They were not interested in any of the solutions or compromises which were suggested (such as having to have only attempted, but not passed, every CT; or excluding CT9 from the requirements). · We were also told that only a small proportion of students had been qualifying on their final CT, and so this change will only affect a small number of people. ·
- The main reason behind the requirements is to improve pass rates for CA2 and CA3, thus cutting down on the number of re-sitters, which means that less courses need to be run and there will be a shorter waiting period to get on a course. ·
- The only compromise on this we got was from the Registrar:
- A commitment to look into running more CT9 courses in Edinburgh to alleviate this bottle neck; and
- It was stated that any students waiting on just CA2 and/or CA3 to qualify would be “fast tracked” and so not have to wait as long to get on a course.
UK Practice Module - The cost of this is to cover the annual review of the syllabus, of maintaining and updating the software, and on reviewing the question banks to ensure they are still relevant. There is also a degree of cross-subsidy between the different practice areas (e.g. P0/P1 costs the same to sit as P0/P2 even though far fewer students sit P0/P1)
- The Profession is unwilling to provide their question banks to ActEd to protect the integrity of the qualification. The questions in the ActEd booklets are written entirely by ActEd.
Comments on specific questions and exams - All comments received have been passed on to the Principal Examiners for the relevant subject.
- Before each exam is finalised, it is “guinea pigged” by a (masochistic) newly qualified actuary - so the Board of Examiners does sincerely seem to believe that each paper is doable in the time allowed.
CT9 - The overwhelming majority of comments that the Profession receives from students about this course is that it covers too much. They therefore do not believe there is any scope to try to squeeze it into one day or an in-house seminar.
Other points - Review of Fail Grades: The new fail grade methodology (as described after the last SCF and also in an article in a recent edition of The Actuary) kicks in for the results of the April 2010 exams. It has not been possible to move to an F1, F2, etc. naming convention (which would have avoided a direct comparison with the old FA, FB, etc.) because of alleged “system reasons”.
- Publishing Pass Marks: The Profession continues to believe that it is not in the interest of trainees or actuaries to publish the actual mark you get in an exam. This is to stop the prospect of “league tables” being complied and companies giving higher pay awards to those who get the highest marks. I suggested that publishing what the pass mark was for each past paper would be very helpful when studying for an exam, helping to de-mystify what is expected of students. It was acknowledged that in the future this might have to happen, but for reasons relating to transparency and public oversight.
- Examiners Reports: Attempts are being made to improve the consistency of these across subjects. Currently, some are much more thorough than others.
- Pass list for qualifiers: If you qualify on a course, you currently have to wait until the next set of exam results are published to see your name on the qualifiers list. This is changing: There will now be qualifiers list published online monthly.
The next meeting of the Forum will be in November. If you would like to know more before then or to discuss any of the above issues further, please feel free to get in touch with your FASS Company Rep or me directly.
With Regards,
Steven Findlay
FASS Rep on SCF 2009/10
Email:
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www.fass-online.org
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